so i've noticed something about orufrey's body language
and i have been going insane about it ever since! kamome shirahama your attention to details will be the death of me /pos
hands are the most expressive non-verbal tool humans have, and since it's also quite literally the tool that gives the witches their magic, watching hands in witch hat atelier is beyond important. implied spoilers up to ch93 under cut! [don't mind the language of half the screenshots, that's beside the point]
qifrey so very often tends to clasp his hands together, rubbing them against each other or simply clinging to his long robes. a gesture so telling of just how uncomfortable due to silverwood he constantly is, always slightly nervous, always tip-toeing around the edge of a cliff.
and he's been doing so since childhood! his emotions are so closed-off when it comes to casual body language, which is both an indicator of his character and the ways in which he deals with his curse. unable to trust even his closest friend, he chooses the only vaguely soothing thing: to curl into himself, to detach, to distance.
meanwhile olruggio, despite his scruffiness, generally comes off as a more open, "simple" man, hands flying all over the place when he's agitated. he expresses his emotions freely, without restrain.
qifrey curls into a ball for comfort, meanwhile olly splays like a star, comfortable in his skin an in qifrey's presence
and what happens when they start to interact?
olly keeps reaching for qifrey, talking some sense into him with his hands, with spontaneous and emotional physical touch.
he does so even upon first meeting
he keeps and keeps reaching out to qifrey, both literally and symbolically.
no matter how hard qifrey tries to run away, to hide deeper into himself, olruggio will always be there to offer him a friendly hand or otherwise
this particular parallel is especially dear to me:
they changed so much,
but they also haven't changed at all
and the culmination of this dynamic in a single image for me is this:
qifrey, gaze averted, hands uncomfortably clasped together, fake smile on his face
and olruggio, calm and confident, leaning into qifrey's personal space with familiar ease, resting an arm on his shoulder in a friendly gesture.
everything that shirahama consistently portrays as the manga goes on and the history unravels, neatly and wordlessly shown in a single static image. the art of showing, but not telling, thus nurturing a deeper understanding of these characters. absolutely brilliant
some more qifreys bc at some point i genuinely started saving all the times i noticed him clasping his hands tightly together or around his clothes
i just feel like shirahama-sensei is so deliberate in her poses and smaller details. she always Knows what to do with the characters' hands. it's so very amazing and important to me. do you get what i mean??????
I’m coming back to this having just read chapter 96
which could straight up be titled ‘Man Viscerally Uncomfortable with Current Situation™ (unexpected social call from a near stranger)’
like my god.
clenching hand at abdomen to awkwardly massaging the bad shoulder to self-consciously rubbing at face. all in the course of a 60 second conversation.
Qifrey you could not be more anxious-looking if you tried 😬
It's so funny too because you get tricked into thinking qifrey is very suave and charming!
And he is!
…When he has a script. Or is in control of the situation. Or he’s interacting with people he's close to. He's perfectly comfortable making his request of coco's mother in their shop. he has no trouble offering assistance to the ladies of the pegasus carriage.
But he also gets steamrolled by the tavern owner during the fire. He gets bullied by medical professionals. He reverts to a preteen in the presence of his old master.
When in his element—teaching children—he is confident and engaging and elegant. But put him in front of a stranger without his family to act as a buffer? ...well
Suddenly he's back to being that little outsider boy who never fit in at the great hall
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